{"id":5248,"date":"2010-11-18T10:30:30","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T10:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2010\/11\/on-provocative-preaching.html"},"modified":"2010-11-18T10:30:30","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T10:30:30","slug":"on-provocative-preaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/11\/on-provocative-preaching.html","title":{"rendered":"On provocative preaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Preaching is about saving before it is about consoling, and God makes this clear to Ezekiel and to every preacher. I think a lot of people think that preaching is supposed to merely please and encourage them. There is a place for that but good preaching also afflicts and provokes response. Jesus was more than willing to provoke people and unsettle them. It is not a goal in itself. Rather, it is the necessary outcome of lancing a spiritual boil or setting a broken limb. Protests, anger, and so forth are not necessarily the sign of failure. I’ve had people come to me and say, You once made me mad but you also made me think and I’ve come to understand what you were saying was true. A lot of times powerful preaching takes people through a cycle of: mad, to sad, to glad.”<\/p>\n

— Msgr. Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington
\n
Read the rest here. <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Preaching is about saving before it is about consoling, and God makes this clear to Ezekiel and to every preacher. I think a lot of people think that preaching is supposed to merely please and encourage them. There is a place for that but good preaching also afflicts and provokes response. Jesus was more than…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-art-of-preaching"],"yoast_head":"\nOn provocative preaching - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/11\/on-provocative-preaching.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On provocative preaching - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Preaching is about saving before it is about consoling, and God makes this clear to Ezekiel and to every preacher. 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